Freddy’s wildlife tour

It was another glorious sunny afternoon when local Freddy – friend of La Tortuga Feliz – arrived on his boat to whisk us away for a David Attenborough style tour through the wilderness. Freddy had the sharpest eyes I’d ever come across. He almost immediately spotted the tiny eyes of a Cayman poking up above the water in the shade of a tree, amongst the scattered rocks and leaves. Gently, we made our way down the river, spectacular scenery surrounding the boat on all sides. There was the mountain of blue crabs – thousands of them; all scuttling as one as the boat approached their territory. There were beautiful vivid blue butterflies, gracefully fluttering over the water surface. We saw all manner of lizards – iguanas perched motionless on tree branches; basilisk lizards running on just their back legs as fast as they could at the first sign of danger. We watched families of monkeys – howlers, spider and white faced monkeys all playing in the treetops, climbing and swinging and giggling. We spotted many different types of birds in their various environments fishing, flying, lazing about on floating logs. We ventured off the boat to Freddys secret frog spot. Hopping around a large pile of discarded coconuts were these tiny little poisonous red frogs. It was Costa Rica on a postcard – picture perfect. Being such expert jungle explorers, we discovered a tree bearing some jungle fruits so we climbed on each other’s shoulders to reach the tasty treats. Back in the boat, sucking in our tart “mangoes” we headed back to camp – only one tick missing in my jungle wildlife checklist: the sloth. King of my jungle. We were almost home when Freddy put the icing on the cake – a SLEEPING SLOTH. I was so excited I almost tipped the boat. Freddy shook the branch and slothy raced away at his turtle pace further up the tree. With his little three clawed hands and dopey smile. He was my favourite animal in the Amazon of Costa Rica. Then it was back to camp to save some more turtles…

About us

La tortuga feliz is a non profit organisation, based in Costa Rica, whose aims are the protection of sea turtles with the help of volunteers. The participation of volunteers contributes to the improvement of the living conditions and education of the local inhabitants.